SEC Pressed Citi for More Details on Brokerage Joint Venture

By

Brett Philbin

Feb. 22, 2013 6:04 p.m. ET

The Securities and Exchange Commission asked Citigroup Inc. to defend its disclosure and valuation of a brokerage joint venture with Morgan Stanley months before Citi was forced to take a roughly $3 billion write-down on the business that helped pave the way for the departure of Vikram Pandit as chief executive.

The SEC request, disclosed in correspondence with the New York company released Friday, was made in April following Citigroup's filing of its 2011 annual report. The SEC asked Citi to expand on the language in the...